Bulletin reporter buys handgun, completing pistol permit journey

Sunday

Jun 16, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 16, 2013 at 4:01 PM

I was a gun owner for about three hours last week. Over the last four months, I have chronicled the arduous process of getting a concealed carry pistol permit. The final step was using that permit, as others do, to purchase a handgun.

JOHN BARRY

I was a gun owner for about three hours last week.

Over the last four months, I have chronicled the arduous process of getting a concealed carry pistol permit. The final step was using that permit, as others do, to purchase a handgun.

I did not want to purchase a gun for my own use. The Bulletin offered to bankroll a purchase to see how the process works. So with my new permit, I headed out shopping.

I have never owned a gun of any kind before, although I have shot at targets using guns belonging to others.

Given my choice of pistols to buy, I’d pick something good for target shooting and small enough to carry concealed. I don’t care about using it for self-defense. I’d prefer a semi-automatic to a revolver just because I like their looks better.

But considering this wasn’t my money, cost was the key factor.

I looked at pistols at a few local gun shops. I saw some excellent choices, but prices ranged from $300 up past $1,000. Guns are not cheap. With apologies to the other places, I went instead to AZ Pawn on East Main Street in Norwich.

Its selection of pistols was tiny compared to the others. But owner Philip Pavone showed me a pistol marked at $195 and said he’d let me buy it for $150. That was a deal I couldn’t refuse.

The pistol is used, of course. It’s a Jennings J-22 made sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, and, according to what I could learn about the model on the Internet, a classic example of a Saturday night special — a cheap, small-caliber pistol.

It was a tiny black gun made of aluminum. About as big as my hand, it has a 2.5-inch barrel and fires .22-caliber ammunition. Two (empty) six-round magazines were included. Online comments and video about the gun tended to lean against it, saying it is inaccurate beyond a short distance and frequently jams. But some users did say that after breaking it in, and with consistent cleaning, it works fine. And, after all, it’s only $150.

Before getting a close look at my merchandise, Pavone required me to show him my driver’s license and newly acquired pistol permit. He made copies of both.

He and I then had to fill out an application to buy a firearm that is required by the state. I had to give him my pistol permit number as well as my height, weight and eye color. I also had to answer a series of questions about whether I had an arrest record or mental health problems.

They were basically the same as the ones I had already answered when I applied for my pistol permit, but my permit wasn’t good enough to keep them from being asked again.

Pavone then called the state Firearms Division, provided his dealer information and my name and pistol permit number, and reported the sale.

“They’re running a check through the state and through federal to see if anything’s happened since you got your pistol permit,” Pavone told me.

Five or six minutes later, I was cleared, and Pavone was given an authorization number.

He then filled out another shorter state form that had roughly the same information minus the background questions. It had four copies we both had to sign. I was told to hang onto one copy for five years. The next copy he was required to keep for 20 years. The third copy was sent to the Firearms Division and the last copy went to the Norwich police.

Then Pavone handed me a notice from the state that every gun buyer must receive. It said in inch-high capital letters: “UNLAWFUL STORAGE OF A LOADED FIREARM MAY RESULT IN IMPRISONMENT OR FINE.”

Fair enough.

My gun was sold with a trigger lock, as the law also requires. Pavone screwed it on and gave me the key.

But we weren’t done.

The federal government’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also requires a form. It was filled out online. It included the same identifying information as the state form, including my physical description, plus its own set of a dozen questions about my background and criminal history. My favorite was “Are you a fugitive from justice?”

That finished, and the information sent into cyberspace, all that remained was for me to pay for my gun. The whole process took about 40 minutes.

Interestingly, Pavone said, none of the rules, the background check and the paperwork are the result of Connecticut’s stricter gun control law passed in the wake of the Newtown shooting.
“This has all been in effect for some time,” AZ Pawn manager Scott Stone said.

I thought it was odd that the procedure to buy my gun was so much stricter than the one for buying a powerful hunting rifle that can send a much larger bullet more than two miles.

But I have learned that gun laws, while they have a good purpose, to keep guns out of the wrong hands, are complex and confusing and sometimes don’t make much sense.

I learned that pistols aren’t easy to get — legally, anyway. It took me more than four months to get mine.

And, as I said at the beginning, gun ownership lasted for only about three hours — without ever loading or shooting it.

Because neither I or The Bulletin wanted the gun, it was agreed before the purchase that whatever weapon I bought would be handed over to the Norwich Police Department.

So on the same day I bought it, I took the gun to the police station. Officer Steve Schmidt, who took my gun, was surprised but willing to take it. He told me my gun would be temporarily stored where the department keeps items of evidence it has taken, then disposed of.

Giving a gun to the police is much easier than buying one — or selling one, for that matter. There were no background checks and no intrusive forms. I just signed a receipt. It took only 10 minutes.

Now, because I have a permit, I may buy a pistol with my own money. If I do, it will be one I really want — to use for target shooting. Also, I don’t plan to write about it.

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